On the Imperative of Language for Understanding African Art

I was deeply touched and honored by the roundtable organized at the 2016 African Studies Association Conference to focus on my book, Yoruba Art and Language: Seeking the African in African Art (2014). I want to thank Professor Funṣọ Afọlayan for contacting and bringing together a formidable group of scholars of Yorùbá art and culture to that end. I was gratified that, by and large, all the panelists endorsed my premise on the fundamental importance of language in Yorùbá art studies. The first paper by Moyọ Okediji was a pleasant surprise. Even though this possibility has always existed, as I had taught a course in Yorùbá art entirely in Yorùbá language at the University of Ifẹ (renamed Ọba ̀ ́fẹmi Awo ́ ́lọẃ ọ University) in ̀ the 1980s1 , no one was expecting that his entire contribution to the roundtable discussion would be presented in Yorùbá language. Why not? I realized. The language is as fully developed as any other language in the world and it can, and should be spoken as well as written -- especially when we discuss Yorùbá art. For the benefit of those not literate in Yorùba language, Michael Af ́ ọlayan gave an elegant translation of Okediji’s paper in English. The excellent contents and presentation by Okediji touched on issues that lay at the heart of my book, namely its methodology and its insistence on the need for a Yorùbá voice to be heard literally and metaphorically in art historical discourse.

The Landbound Chicken and the Deliberate Chameleon yet have their Uses: Yorùbá Art History, Language, and Interpretation.

Rowland Abiodun’s Yorùbá Art and Language contains many extremely valuable features, wrapped around a question he raises in its introduction: can foreign scholars ever truly understand a work the way its Yorùbá makers and users do? Language mastery certainly provides the native speaker with access to inestimable insights regarding not only general worldview, but specifics of philosophy, history keeping, and subtleties of knowledge transmission. However, in the attempt to read an artwork and unpack its meaning, cultural in[1]siders also face obstacles as well as advantages, particularly when pieces date from the more distant past. The import of Abiodun’s major contributions regarding Yorùbá art’s history and the validity of his contentions are considered here in light of the varied contributions both foreign and Yorùbá art historians bring to Yorùbá scholarship, in the recognition that working with art of bygone centuries makes all scholars outsiders to a degree. A kì í gbójú-u fífò lé adìẹ àgàgà; à kì í gbójú-u yíyan lé alágẹmọ. One should not expect the flightless chicken to soar; one should not expect the chameleon to stride. Can outsiders ever truly understand a work of art the way its makers and users do? In the introduction to his book Yorùbá Art and Language: Seeking the African in African Art, Rowland Abiodun concludes that only those with a mastery of the Yorùbá language and deep cultural familiarity can interpret Yorùbá artworks effectively. His argument produces numerous salie observations and the viewing framework he creates provides an exceedingly valuable set of lenses for interpreting Yorùbá sculpture. However, the question posed above remains intriguing, and is more complex than it appears. Even when an artist and his patron live in the same community at the same time, their interpretations of a commissioned work may not be identical, so when one moves out to the analyses of art historians, Yorùbá or not, one cannot necessarily assume a third party will understand the work just as its maker and user did. Additional corollaries to the question exist as well. What are the parameters of outsider status? Do they constitute a spectrum? Do insider advantages always trump outsiders’ perceptions? These issues become even more pertinent as distance from our own era increases. While the question of outsider/insider status does not constitute the thrust of Abiodun’s book, it is a major aspect of his introduction, and thus worth considering.1 While this paper considers the unique multiple contributions of Abiodun’s book, it also argues that careful considerations of objects and context can be made by outsiders, while insiders, like all researchers, can choose to ignore elements that conflict with their own preconceptions, develop greater interest in one topic than another, generalize their known experience to the whole of Yorubaland or apply it half a millennium into the past. While these perspectives differ, one does not automatically eclipse the other.

An Analysis on Forms and Functions of Code-Switching and Code-Mixing Used in Drama Performance

The study was conducted in order to describe the forms and the functions of code-switching and code-mixing in drama performance of ALE of the students of ICP batch 2017. The study was descriptive qualitative research. The data are collected by observation and documentation in the drama performance in Art and Language Exhibition ‘Prahara Ing Argabelah’. The finding shows that 24 unit analysis of code-switching found 6 used tag-switching, 15 used inter-sentential switching, and 3 used intra-sentential switching. Furthermore, 27 unit analysis of code-mixing performed 21 intra-sentential code mixing, 5 intra-lexical code mixing, and 1 involving a change of pronunciation. Then, from 24 unit analysis of code-switching, the researcher found six functions in the drama conversation. There are 6 addressee specifications, 2 repetitions, 7 interjections, 1 message qualification, 2 personalization and objectivizations, and 6 facilities of expression. Moreover, the researcher just found 3 functions from 27 unit analysis of code-mixing. There are 1 repetition, 2 message qualifications, and 24 facilities of expression.

W. von Humboldt’s Ideas as Locus Communis in Russian Philosophy (Casus of V. Weidle)

The article substantiates the idea that the ideas of W. von Humboldt had a sig­nificant impact on the formation of the thematic priorities of the Russian philo­sophical, scientific and humanitarian thought of the 20th century. In all spheres, one way or another concerning the nature of language and art, his reasoning turned out to be strikingly relevant and consonant with the intellectual searches of Russian philosophers of the last century. Thus, his concept of the internal form of language becomes a locus communis in their scholarly communication. In this article, the author outlines the themes that make it possible to reveal the artistic-aesthetic, hermeneutic, and epistemological significance of the intel­lectual continuity that goes from Humboldt to Russian thinkers. In the works of G.G. Shpet, P.A. Florensky, S.N. Bulgakov, and other philosophers of the first half of the twentieth century, dealing with the problems of language and the Word as unique humanitarian objects, one way or another, there is a connec­tion with Humboldt’s reflections on art and language. It is noteworthy that in the second half of the twentieth century, the interest of Russian philosophers in the work of Humboldt did not weaken. This, in particular, is evidenced by the works of the representative of the philosophy of the Russian diaspora V.V. Weidle, in which the methodological transfer of Humboldt’s ideas from the linguistic sphere to the artistic-aesthetic and theoretical-cognitive tradition of Russian philosophy is effected.

Gestalt and Movement between Music and Dance

SummaryThe famous essay by Christian von Ehrenfels, Über Gestaltqualitäten (1890), opens up, as is well-known, an important seam not only in the psychology of perception but also of aesthetics, of the psychology and philosophy of music, art and language. Here, in fact, the form understood as ‘Gestalt’ is something concretely audible and visible and not simply a formal abstraction. It is about a pioneering programme rich in ideas and original connections. The author does not mean simply to define the meaning of the concept of Gestalt, but he also sets out a fertile variety of extraordinary applications. In the first place – following a suggestion of Ernst Mach’s – he indicates an application in the field of music, in particular in the exemplary case of melody. In this sense the melody, as a temporal Gestalt, is a more fitting illustration of Gestalt than a spatial Gestalt (e.g. of a geometric figure). But in other cases, as for instance in the case of perception of movement, both temporal and spatial Gestalts are admitted. And a characteristic example is provided by dance. In this article, we shall investigate the comparison between sound movement and visual–gestural movement, and we shall also be discussing the matter by having recourse to the experience of professional dancers.

»Eigentümlicher Denkzauber« und »die Aura der Begriffe«

This article approaches Ludwik Fleck’s work from a literary perspective. It argues that Fleck is not only concerned with how scientific facts emerge, but, in accordance with his broader epistemology, with how different knowledges of reality emerge, through intra- and intercollective migrations of concepts and thoughts through different styles of thinking. Thus, in order to comprehend such cognitive traversal, interpretation, which I take to be suggested in Fleck’s work, is required. In this, I draw on the work of Andrzej Przyłębski and Dimitri Ginev, who see an implicit hermeneutics anticipated in Fleck’s work. These writings are supplemented and expanded by considering the concept of style, including Fleck’s own style, before examining what role literature, art, and language play in Fleck’s conception of thought style and thought collective. To this end, Fleck’s article »The Problem of Epistemology« from 1936, which has received little scholarly attention so far, is highlighted.